really struggling with my tracking

dennismubaiwa
dennismubaiwa Posts: 2
in Food and Nutrition
Hello folks. I'm new to MFP and I've found it invaluable. I've started my summer beach body diet and it's been really useful so far. That said, tracking my food has been really challenging. I've been getting frustrated with some of the measurements laid out for certain foods.

What exactly constitutes a 'serving' and a 'cup'. I don't think you can reliably track calories with vague measurements such as these (I could be wrong). Some foods do have 100gr ad 1gr tracking which is great because I have a food scale.

For those who've met this challenge, how have you managed to get around it and track your food more accurately?

Replies

  • JesterMFP
    JesterMFP Posts: 3,596 Member
    If there are a lot of entries, sometimes you just have to keep clicking and you'll come up with one with your preferred measurements.

    If it's generic items like meat or fruit, then there are a couple of tricks. You need to find the entries that were added by MFP staff based on the USDA data as they usually have a good choice of measurements. Don't actually use the term "generic" in your search. For meat, search for eg. "chicken breast raw" or "chicken breast cooked", and you should get entries coming up with no asterisk in front of them. Those are the ones added by staff (or by you). For fruit and veg, they're usually listed as "bananas, raw" etc.

    For branded products, if you can't find an entry with the measurements that suit, you can add your own entry based on the info on the packaging. When you search for the food, there's the option to "Add a food to the database". If you think that it's an entry that won't be useful to anyone else, you can leave the box empty that says to share the item with other MFP members. It takes a bit of time to add your own items initially, but if you use those items again, they'll still be there for you, so it's worth it. If had to do that with quite a few things.
  • nmargison
    nmargison Posts: 1 Member
    Hi

    A 'cup' is a recognised volume measurement, I have a set of containers in one, half and quarter cup sizes just for this.

    The only time I have seen 'serving' is when it was printed on the packaging e.g. '2 servings per pack'. I then looked at the nutritional info on the box and could see how many grams was half of the entire package. Then I either just take half of the packet or weigh out a different amount depending on how much I need.

    Hope this helps.
  • koing
    koing Posts: 179 Member
    I always change it to 1g or 100g and go off a % on what I'm using.

    The cup is the worst measurement imo but I guess if your cutting veg the calories don't add up that much unless you use a pint cup.

    Koing
  • dennismubaiwa
    dennismubaiwa Posts: 2
    thanks guys that's really helpful!:smile:
  • _Zardoz_
    _Zardoz_ Posts: 3,987 Member
    Cups are fine for liquids but for solids you really need to weigh them. The amount of a solid you can stuff in a cup could differ greatly especially if it's an item someone has chopped.
  • metteris
    metteris Posts: 3
    I hate when the measurement is in cups. Cups are not even an exact measurement. They differ from country to country, and from something like 2.5 decilitre to 3.3 decilitre (which IS an exact measurement). Millilitres, decilitres and litres are exact measurements only used for liquids, whereas grams and kilos are used for non-liquids. I think it would be far easier if everything was in grams on here, since I weigh all my food, and on the packaging is says how many calories are in it pr. 100 grams.

    Anyway, I just don't think cups are useful for this. It always suggests something like 1 cup banana, chopped - so I have to chop up a banana and stuff it in a cup to see how many calories it is - and if I play Tetris with the banana, I can stuff far more in the cup - it just doesn't make for exact tracking of calories.
    Instead I just weigh the chopped food in a bowl (subtract the bowl obviously) and if its 80 grams, it's just however many calories are in 80 grams just makes much more sense to me.

    So look around till you find items that fit your method of measuring, and maybe favourite those items so you can easily find them - or add them yourself. I often look up online how many calories are in this or that, and then add them myself :)
  • Francl27
    Francl27 Posts: 26,371 Member
    I can usually find at least one entry that has grams or ounces in it. The only thing I still guess is stuff that needs to be measured dry (pasta, rice, couscous), because it's just too much of a pain when you cook for 4 to figure out exactly how much you're having while it's cooked.

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